Development of anti-bacterial surfaces using a hydrophobin chimeric protein.

The search for new approaches for developing antimicrobial surfaces is a challenge of great urgency to prevent and control microbial growth on surfaces. The strategy herein proposed relies on the design of a new, simple and general tool for creating antimicrobial surfaces, based on a hydrophobin chimeric protein which fuses the adhesive self-assembling class I hydrophobin Vmh2 from Pleurotus ostreatus to the human antimicrobial peptide LL-37. The recombinant LL37-Vmh2 protein displayed both the adhesive and the antimicrobic properties of its members, and when deposited on polystyrene surface, a positive effect due to the fusion was observed in terms of both efficacy and versatility of the coating.